A former member of the community, not extremely active on GBAtemp but known for contributions to several projects on the 3DS hacking scene, Thomas Edvalson aka 'Cruel', has recently received a 20 year jail sentence for supposedly hosting a child porn site (although he firmly denied it).

Thomas Scot Edvalson, 28, appeared to be providing a website where other users could download images of child porn, according to a press release form the District Attorney’s Office. The site came complete with an online guide detailing how to use the dark web to set up a website for trading pictures of child sexual abuse.

Source: Gwinnett Daily Post
A thread was started on GBAtemp to discuss the issue a couple of months ago, before the final judgement was rendered. At the time our decision was to lock the thread up as it began to heavily derail. Some members and visitors took this as a 'cover up' and wondered why we didn't ban this guy's user account on GBAtemp.

We had long discussions in the staff forum and decided to wait for the final verdict (the appeal that is) before doing anything, thereby letting justice do its work. We banned this person from our forums immediately after we heard the final judgement and by the looks of it he won't be around again for a while. Since then, there hasn't been any new threads about the story but if there had been one, we would have allowed it for sure.

At this point we are wondering why anyone would think we are 'covering' this up? Why would we even need to? It's not like people don't know what happened already. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread.

Furthermore, there is an ongoing story concerning another person, it's been posted on a Reddit thread (edit: now removed, but you can see screenshots here) and, again, we certainly won't prevent you from discussing it wherever you want just as long as you stay civil.

We at GBAtemp value freedom of speech above all, but within the boundaries of the law. If you think someone is guilty of a crime it is your duty to report it to the relevant authorities (not the GBAtemp admins, I mean the police). But otherwise let justice do its job. We do not believe that witch hunts have their place on GBAtemp.


The staff

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Here's the gist:

1. Cruels avatar (still visible on his GitHub) contains a face. Said face was matched up to the news article that Costello linked which contained a mugshot of the guy.
2. His notabug profile (check the old freeshop source) literally uses his own name rather than TheCruel. Combined with the previous connection, it would be a coincidence only if a snowball can survive in hell for longer than a second. So not a coincidence at all.

I am sure you are correct with your information, but would you please provide sources?

 

[Ev1l0rd]

You can actually find his entire criminal record and in fact doing some deeper research I was able to pull up a lot about him. Including there only being one person on record with his name in the state of Georgia. TheCruel actually left a very easy to track record and using his full name on all of his sources made it even easier to track him down.

You know what I still don't get about all this? Why he did this despite his internet block and made no effort to hide himself. Did he suffer from internal brain bleeding or something? He went for the very obvious route by not even hiding himself in any shape way or form (names are easy to fake, TOR hides your IP and private emails can be obtained from malegenitals.li). It's almost as if he wanted to get caught.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You can actually find his entire criminal record and in fact doing some deeper research I was able to pull up a lot about him. Including there only being one person on record with his name in the state of Georgia. TheCruel actually left a very easy to track record and using his full name on all of his sources made it even easier to track him down.

What a fucking idiot. For someone whom is so intelligent, he must have thought that his intelligence was above that of law enforcement.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I am sure you are correct with your information, but would you please provide sources?

News article: http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/lo...cle_05ad133f-165f-5afe-9714-92fc4445ead1.html

Github profile (which I now notice has his real name on it, so youre not getting the notabug profile): https://github.com/Cruel

And there you go.

 

[spiderman1216]

No what i'm saying is that i have nothing against pedophile since they didn't choosed their orientation, it's not their fault and they suffer a lot because of that and pedophile ≠ rapist / child molester
almost every time you hear about a pedophile it is because he comited a crime, that does not mean all pedophile commit crimes in fact the vast majority is uknown and will never do anything bad, they are just hidding their orientation
pedophile literally mean : someone who is attracted by child
and we can't blame him because he didn't choosed to be that way

Though, i'm against rapist and child molester and those people should be killed

if i said that, it is because one of my best friend is a pedophile, he didn't choosed that, but he is actually one of the greatest people i know and he actually saved my life
i know that he will never do any harm to anyone and he really suffer from his condition
this is why i'm not against pedophile but rapist and child molesters

My opinion on the matter is, I don't care what two or more consenting people do in the bedroom, as long as it's consensual. A 50 year old can be fucking a 15 year old for all I care, as long as they both consent, and there is no blackmail, manipulation, or abuse going on. Just keep it in the bedroom.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You know what I still don't get about all this? Why he did this despite his internet block and made no effort to hide himself. Did he suffer from internal brain bleeding or something? He went for the very obvious route by not even hiding himself in any shape way or form (names are easy to fake, TOR hides your IP and private emails can be obtained from malegenitals.li). It's almost as if he wanted to get caught.

I agree. Something doesn't add up here.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

My opinion on the matter is, I don't care what two or more consenting people do in the bedroom, as long as it's consensual. A 50 year old can be fucking a 15 year old for all I care, as long as they both consent, and there is no blackmail, manipulation, or abuse going on. Just keep it in the bedroom.

You will have a much different opinion if it is a 50 year old seducing your 15 year old daughter.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

News article: http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/lo...cle_05ad133f-165f-5afe-9714-92fc4445ead1.html

Github profile (which I now notice has his real name on it, so youre not getting the notabug profile): https://github.com/Cruel

And there you go.

Well I guess that puts it all together now. Yeah, Cruel is the scumbag.

Thank you for taking the time to present that for us. I appreciate you efforts.

 

[The Catboy]

You know what I still don't get about all this? Why he did this despite his internet block and made no effort to hide himself. Did he suffer from internal brain bleeding or something? He went for the very obvious route by not even hiding himself in any shape way or form (names are easy to fake, TOR hides your IP and private emails can be obtained from malegenitals.li). It's almost as if he wanted to get caught.

My guess, dude had an ego. I mean, he's smiling in his fucking mugshot. He was arrested for CP and he's smiling.

I agree. Something doesn't add up here.

Oh yeah and he also admitted to his servers being taken once for CP. It's in a thread that no longer is accessible to the public.

But is this really shocking? Look at his reply after freeShop was taken down.

Spoiler

“Fuck Nintendo. If anyone wants to know whether I’m going to counter it, I’m not yet sure. That could permit them to file lawsuit against me...to claim [Freeshop] circumvents any protections is laughable, though I’m unsure if it’s legally sound (law is often laughable itself). It only circumvents protections if people utilize title keys they did not purchase or obtain legally. If people illegally obtain the password/PINs of a person’s bank account, you can’t criticize the banking website for facilitating theft.”

He very clearly shows that he believes he was above the law and most likely he did here too. But interestingly enough, I do think he was trying cover his tracks. Both his original website
https://edvalson.info
And his Twitter had gone quiet after the first court ruling.

 

[spiderman1216]

Even if I totally understand your point of view, this means that we would also have to kill psychopaths, schizophrenics, etc... and if we can decide to kill them because of the risk, then we could use the same logic for poor people, or to specific ethnicities for example. And it would be Minority Report (or Psycho Pass for anime lovers, which was clearly inspired by minority report, but hey I'm getting side tracked here) all the way.

If we were to kill people because of risk there wouldn't be a single living thing on this planet.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I agree. Something doesn't add up here.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


You will have a much different opinion if it is a 50 year old seducing your 15 year old daughter.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Well I guess that puts it all together now. Yeah, Cruel is the scumbag.

Thank you for taking the time to present that for us. I appreciate you efforts.

If it was my daughter, I would just ask her to talk to me about him, and I would ask him what his interest in my daughter is, I can't really do shit if they are in love with each other, at the age of 18 she can always run away with him. I would just say, please use a condom. It would be the same thing reversed if I had a 15 year old son, and a 50 year old woman was seducing him.

 

[SuperDan]

Sorry, I know my English is terrible and not very clear.

It is my wish to write as clear as possible so you can see what I mean with the minimal effort on your part, so you can reply if you wish to what I try to say, instead of getting confused by my awful English.

I will try to do my best to explain again the point I am trying to make, but I hope this time it comes up better and easier to understand.

First, regarding the lack of data for statistics, it was related to this post:



To this I replied that the world performs a witch hunt to people seeking help, comparable to the witch hunt of homosexuals performed by Chechnya.
I wanted to bring into attention what is known as honor killings, where homosexuals are set apart and murdered by their own families.
I posted the following:



What I meant by "The world is the Chechnya of pedophiles", is that instead of being supporting of someone seeking for help (not an offender), a similar effect to honor killings occurs, this time people are set apart from society and sometimes murdered.
I then quoted some other people from this forum to make my point:






That's the reason I said that under this conditions I am not surprised they wouldn't come out publicly to seek for help considering this, so in the end it is almost impossible for you to get your proof or numbers.

I think this shunning performed by society on non-offenders makes the problem worse, as this people end up denying themselves their problem and hiding everything related to it until it explodes, instead of the seeking help what would in the end be less damaging for the society.

That is the reason I said I really believe the world should be as severe as it is with offenders, but much more supportive with people that want to seek help, but of course, that is IMHO.


I know my English must be terrible, but if there is something specific in my text that makes it difficult to see what I mean, please let me know, I will do my best to write it in a better way.

I hope this time what I meant has become clear.

im done trying to explain this .. a sicko perv looking up child rape ... beinga dev ,queen of england whatever is a piece of shit ... mental illness whatever he is a cunt or she is a cunt either way .. a sick cunt .. all you politically correct pricks can go eat shit as far as im concerned ... if you think they just need a sit down and a a cuddle .. you're very wrong ...

 

[sarkwalvein]

im done trying to explain this .. a sicko perv looking up child rape ... beinga dev ,queen of england whatever is a piece of shit ... mental illness whatever he is a cunt or she is a cunt either way .. a sick cunt .. all you politically correct pricks can go eat shit as far as im concerned ... if you think they just need a sit down and a a cuddle .. you're very wrong ...

It is not about being politically correct.
PC can go fuck itself.
It is about the strategy I believe would reduce damage on society, the one that would end up with a world safer for children.
Of course I can be wrong, I am not an omniscient being, but I believe that would work better, because of the reasons I explained.

I know you can make an argument, so you can explain why you think what you propose will work better, based on logic not feelings. Discussion, sir, open discussion.

Arguments / reasons:

Spoiler

Pedophiles are sick, mentally ill. No sugarcoating.

But if you corner them with shunning and murder intent,
I think this shunning on non-offenders makes the problem worse:
This people end up denying themselves their problem and hiding everything related to it until it explodes.

If instead non-offenders were not shunned and they were supported in their seek for help, I believe they will stop denying the problem and will seek help. This will reduce the amount of them that offend, and it will make the world SAFER FOR CHILDREN, I believe.

That is the reason I said I really believe the world should be as severe as it is with offenders, but much more supportive with people that want to seek help, but of course, that is IMHO.

 

[Alkéryn]

My opinion on the matter is, I don't care what two or more consenting people do in the bedroom, as long as it's consensual. A 50 year old can be fucking a 15 year old for all I care, as long as they both consent, and there is no blackmail, manipulation, or abuse going on. Just keep it in the bedroom.

Well the problem is that when people are too young they aren't mature enought to understand
you could force a child to do sexual things and he will realise it only when he have grow more and feel humiliated
thoug 15 is okay in my opinion
a 9 yo even if consent is definitely wrong because he / she don't have the maturity necesary to make that decision and will very likely regret it when zhe grow up

 

[bi388]

im done trying to explain this .. a sicko perv looking up child rape ... beinga dev ,queen of england whatever is a piece of shit ... mental illness whatever he is a cunt or she is a cunt either way .. a sick cunt .. all you politically correct pricks can go eat shit as far as im concerned ... if you think they just need a sit down and a a cuddle .. you're very wrong ...

In english?

 

[DeadlyFoez]

If we were to kill people because of risk there wouldn't be a single living thing on this planet.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


If it was my daughter, I would just ask her to talk to me about him, and I would ask him what his interest in my daughter is, I can't really do shit if they are in love with each other, at the age of 18 she can always run away with him. I would just say, please use a condom. It would be the same thing reversed if I had a 15 year old son, and a 50 year old woman was seducing him.

Either you don't currently have a daughter, or you are just a plain moron. If he does not give you 5 cows and 2 goats before fucking your daughter then, as trump would say... "this is the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals."

 

[bi388]

Either you don't currently have a daughter, or you are just a plain moron. If he does not give you 5 cows and 2 goats before fucking your daughter then, as trump would say... "this is the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals."

Marriage isn't a trade deal. If she's an adult she should be allowed to be with whoever she wants, and even joking that marrying off your daughter for goods is more moral than letting he be with who she wants once (when she's an adult) is gross.

 

[Seliph]

What if he got framed by the Nintendo ninjas because he developed Freeshop?

 

[Alkéryn]

Either you don't currently have a daughter, or you are just a plain moron. If he does not give you 5 cows and 2 goats before fucking your daughter then, as trump would say... "this is the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals."

I don't know if quoting trump can be relevent in any topic other than those criticizing trump
But he did say that if that was what his children wanted and where mature enough he would agree with them
but then again if you are in this state of mind, why no profit a bit of the situation as you said

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

What if he got framed by the Nintendo ninjas because he developed Freeshop?

I doubt nintendo would go that far
and i think he is indeed guilty
but again only my personal opinion
it don't really have any wheight on the balance

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Marriage isn't a trade deal. If she's an adult she should be allowed to be with whoever she wants, and even joking that marrying off your daughter for goods is more moral than letting he be with who she wants once (when she's an adult) is gross.

Ehh, I am sure you will move on from my passive joke.

Ok. if that is that way you want to provide safety to your family then that is your choice. Many people are happy booting their kids out the door asap and letting them fend for themselves, but many more people with morals and hearts will look our for the children even after they left the nest because we all know the newbies are no where near as wise as us old folks.

 

[Knight of Time]

Wow...just wow.

I don't remember this guy or his username here, but it's not the first time I've heard of someone from a forum I'm active on getting in trouble with the law. On a Pokemon forum that I'm a regular on (even though it's getting kinda old, considering it made its debut in 2000), there was a former member who was apparently fined or jailed (not sure what it was though) for leaking images of the Pokemon movie Ruler of Illusions: Zoroark (he took a recording device into a Japanese theater where the movie was airing) and posting them on his website PokeBeach. I was hoping it wasn't him when I first heard that piece of news, but after others posted there and confirmed it was him (I didn't post the topic there, but I was the first person to reply to it), I went to the link there one last time, only to notice it was gone.

But in my opinion, I can't imagine what would be worse, being caught doing piracy or being caught doing pornography? If someone got caught for doing both however, that would be way beyond ridiculous.

 

[Seliph]

I doubt nintendo would go that far
and i think he is indeed guilty
but again only my personal opinion
it don't really have any wheight on the balance

Yeah, I know Nintendo wouldn't go that far, I was just joking. I agree, he most likely is guilty imo

 

[spiderman1216]

I don't know if quoting trump can be relevent in any topic other than those criticizing trump
But he did say that if that was what his children wanted and where mature enough he would agree with them
but then again if you are in this state of mind, why no profit a bit of the situation as you said

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


I doubt nintendo would go that far
and i think he is indeed guilty
but again only my personal opinion
it don't really have any wheight on the balance

That's what I'm trying to say look I believe that even if I didn't agree with my son or daughter dating a 50 year old, there isn't much I can do about that 3 years she can run away with this person, and I will just be seen as a pest, she'll be 18 years of age. Best thing to do is, simply just support her, and be there for her if she needs me, and talk to this person who shares the same mutual like for her. I can't say who he/she can date, I can't make that decision, it's not my call to accept, and any attempt to do so is just causes animosity. I can advise my son/daughter, but that's it really especially when she turns 18.